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Something happened to me yesterday that in years to come, I'll probably look back and re-tell it at parties, emphasising my luck and hopefully forgetting the rest that is currently fresh in my mind....

I had a 250 mile drive to Yoesemite and therefore, estimating 4-5 hours of driving and a refreshment/petrol break, I set off early.

My highway directions were followed accurately and soon I was 70 miles from my destination on California highway 140. I felt I had put all of the earlier driving experiences I had encountered to the back of an otherwise amazing trip.

Soon the temperatures were creeping up to 106 degrees!

I had just under 60 miles to go...the road outstretched before me, the heat creating puddles on the burning concrete. All around me was yellow, scorched hills and to the sides of me, cornfields.

I am a careful driver..I would subtract 10-20 miles off any speed limit...I just felt people drove too fast...even the American couple I met in Oregon said the roads were the worst and most poorly maintained they had ever driven..

I was doing 35m.p.h....I was not expecting to be involved in the most frightening experience of my life.

There was not a car on this strip of road, just me...I don't know if it was petrol on the concrete or one of the many pot-holes in the road, but all of a sudden the steering went loose and I was having to pull it back but still I was swerving all over the road into the next lane. The slow pumping of the breaks seemed to do little and when I eventually got it back to my side of the road (this was all seconds but seems much longer), the car went into a spin....I remember spinning 5-6 times and at one time, I thought the car would actually topple over. At that point, I thought about how I would ever control this situation and I thought about the potential of oncoming traffic.

I have faith in something...I'm not quite sure it is God, but this experience made me feel perhaps someone is out there, protecting me...it was certainly not my turn to make an exit. I say this because the most perfect outcome to this awful situation occurred. Facing the road again in the final spin, I did a perfect 180 degree turn offroad into a field of corn...the car, despite a few small scaratches, was still running and me, well, despite my hands shaking, I just stared out into the cornfield in disbelief at my luck.

A few minutes later, two large trucks went by and I was once again reminded of my fortune..

I knew I had to just get back in that car and drive on...and I did...all the way to my motel (2 miles from Yosemite Park)....

After checking in, I made my first phone call to my brother and parents...this was the first time I had actually felt I really needed someone to talk to...if I had kept the details of the events in my head, I would have gone mad! I also needed another voice, another opinion...even writing this is helping me...blogs are not just there to let you know what a great time I'm having and 99% of the time it is the best time of my life...I just need to get through this 1%.

As soon as I heard my brother's voice, I burst into tears...I'd been holding it all in and now I could be any way I wanted to be..he was my brother after all..
After an emotional exchange, I felt angry with myself that I could not deal with this alone....but there is something I am beginning to realise anyway..I'm far too hard on myself..I don't need to prove anything to anyone..what I have managed to achieve, my parents informed me, is amazing..not many people could do it...I should remember that.


The kindness of strangers is a wonderful thing....I was at a low point and the Chinese assistant in the general store stood chatting to me about China (I'm planning to go back within the next five years)...she's planning to go back to Beijing. She told me when I come again, I will have a friend and she wrote her email address on my receipt. Then the ranger invited me to his small group (4-6 people)night walk in Yosemite....I'm in the park right now..it is beautiful and surpasses anything I have seen so far...I'm off to explore!